Thursday, January 25, 2007
SS mini-project [1]
Thoughts on government policies (chapter 5)
Principle of good governance: Fairness
[At the 2006 Ministry of Education (MOE) Work Plan Seminar, Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Minister for Education, announced several initiatives to take the education system forward in building an ability-driven education system. One of the key announcements he made was the removal of the EM3 stream.
Starting from the 2008 Primary 5 cohort, students under Subject-based Banding will be able to read a mix of Standard or Foundation subjects depending on their aptitude in each subject.
According to the MOE, the removal of the EM3 stream and the introduction of Subject-based Banding have many benefits. Firstly, it would benefit students who, under the current arrangement, would have been placed in EM3 stream. These students would have the opportunity to read subjects in which they are strong in with other students at the Standard level, instead of being lumped under EM3 completely.
Secondly, Subject-based banding would also benefit students who are under the merged EM1-EM2 stream but are weak in some subjects at the Standard level. They are given the option to take their weak subjects at the Foundation level to have a better grasp of the fundamentals before progressing on to secondary school.
Schools will advise students to offer Foundation level subjects when they face difficulties in two or more subjects. Schools will also advise students on their subject combinations best suited to their abilities at the end of Primary 4. Parents and students will then choose the combinations they prefer.]
Abridged from:
http://www.reach.gov.sg/YourSay/tabid/82/forumid/104/threadid/67/scope/posts/Default.aspx
My views :)
I feel that the government is giving a chance to the weaker students and at the same time, boosting their confidence as they will not be labeled by the public anymore. As the students’ confidence grows, they may enjoy the learning experience more and thus excelling in the subjects they may be deemed 'weak' in previously.
By giving all the kids an equal opportunity to study the same subjects, they will not feel stressed and might do even better. They can learn from their past mistakes and also ask from their friends.After all, streaming at such a young age [10 years old] is not very feasible as they are not very capable of thinking for themselves and being able to make the correct decision of studying well.
In the past, having an EM3 child seemed as a disgrace to the family. And so, the students find themselves hopeless and therefore give up on themselves as they think that the society seems to be looking down on them.
By implementing on this policy, I believe that the students would gain more confidence and strive for the best in their studies. Also, the MOE is trying to provide students with customised and differentiated learning experiences, so as to realise their potential, while enhancing opportunities for interaction among the students.
Furthermore, I also find that the government is practicing pragmatism on this policy. It is letting all Singapore kids to recognise their long and short-comings so as to improve on their short-comings and maintaining their standard for their better subjects. In this way, the standards for the kids will be raised and Singapore might have more talents appearing!
Therefore, the government is making a good policy to induce fairness and pragmatism into education as there will no longer be labeling in Singapore's primary school education system!
The end :)
